1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and compounds useful in fragrance fixation and particularly relates to use of methyl glucoside polyols in fragrance formulations.
2. The Prior Art
Fragrance formulation is an art in which the senses of the skilled perfumer are more important than mere chemical analysis. A fragrance results from a variety of components in a fragranced composition. Ordinarily, fragrances are created by blending materials comprising odoriferous essential oils, extracts from woods, gums, flowers and other botanicals, resins, animal secretions, and synthetic aromatic materials. These materials are skillfully blended in order to achieve what are known as a "top note", a "middle note," and an "end note." The first is the refreshing quality sensed upon application. The last is the essence of the fragrance which stays with the wearer for a long time. The middle note is the perceived quality that bridges from top to end note.
In the creation of fragrances, certain materials are generally selected for their use as fragrance fixatives. These are substances which amplify the intensity and lasting qualities of aromatic components of a fragrance. (The term "aromatic" as used in this specification is defined in the perfumers' sense of "odorous substances" rather than in the chemical sense.) A fragrance fixative has principal activity with respect to the lasting quality and the end note of the fragrance.
Many materials are available to the perfumer as fixatives, Among these are the following:
1. Floral and botanical absolutes, concretes and resinoids. PA1 2. Animal secretions and extracts. PA1 3. Macrocyclic musks. PA1 4. Nitro musks.
Floral and botanical absolutes, concretes and resinoids are produced by extraction with volatile and non-volatile solvents or other menstruums. Essential oils (volatile oils) are found in plants and obtained by steam distillation or other methods. Generally, essential oils are defined as the more-or-less volatile material isolated from an odorous plant of a single botanical species by a physical process. Flower oils, concretes and resinoids (oleo resins) being only partially volatile are therefore only partly essential oils. The method of their preparation often imparts fixative properties.
Animal secretions and extracts used for fixatives generally include musks derived from glands of the male musk deer (natural musk or Musk Tonquin), the civet cat (civet) or the beaver (castoreum) as well as ambergris which is not a gland secretion but an accumulated material in the whale.
Macrocyclic musks are synthetic compounds like the macrocyclic ketones or lactones and also include indans and tetralins, derivatives of hydrindacene, isochroman, naphthindan, and coumarin.
Nitro musks include various nitro benzene compounds.
In addition to the foregoing materials, some references in the art to other synthetic materials having no odor of their own as fragrance fixatives have been made to ethylphthalate and to benzyl benzoate. Actually, these materials do little to strengthen and prolong the fragrance of fragranced materials, but they are useful as low volatility solvents for a broad range of fragrance materials.
It is well known that prior art fragrance fixatives can distort the nature or character of the fragrance being fixed. This problem is overcome in accordance with the present invention wherein essentially odorless methyl glucoside polyols are used as fragrance fixatives.